MARY ELLEN MCCAFFREE & ANNE MCNAMEE CORBETT, POLITICS OF THE POSSIBLE: THE DECADE OUR AMERICAN DEMOCRACY WORKED

Start: 02/15/2012 7:00 pm

Location:

Street:: 1200 11th St
City:: Bellingham
Province:: Washington
Postal Code:: 98225-7015
Country:: United States

The 1960s set the stage for this citizen-driven overhaul of a government whose woes resonate remarkably today. Politics of the Possible journeys inside one dynamic decade when a team of determined young moderates ousted their party's radical fringe, took on the toughest, most politically unpalatable needs of their day, and forged a progressive, bi-partisan path that led to sweeping change. Experienced through the eyes of a central player, this true story provides living proof that: Politics can be positive; real reform is possible; a responsible focus on problem-solving can overcome partisan ills; and A single citizen really can make a difference.

Mary Ellen McCaffree inadvertently entered political life when she took up the cause of her children's overcrowded and under-funded schools. This led the 1950's housewife into work on two statewide redistricting initiatives, four terms as a state legislator, accolades as architect and author of her state's most comprehensive package of tax reform, co-author of legislation that established the state's community college system, author of the constitutional amendment for youth voting rights, and as a sponsor of groundbreaking environmental protections. She served on her state's founding hearings boards for pollution control and shorelines management which wrote the initial regulations for each.The first woman director of the Washington State Department of Revenue, she also served as King County (Seattle) budget director and as administrative assistant to a US Senator in Washington, DC. Upon her retirement from public life she continued to encourage women's active roles in local and national politics, and served on many local, state and national commissions, committees and boards. She has a degree in home economics from Kansas State University, and has been married 69 years to Dr. Kenneth McCaffree, Professor Emeritus, Economics, University of Washington and her high school sweetheart. The couple has 5 children, 14 grandchildren, 18 great-grandchildren and counting, and together wrote Piecing Together Our Separate Lives as a gift to their family on the occasion of their 60th wedding anniversary. She resides with her husband in Snohomish, Washington. As a lifelong gardener and relentless taker-on-of-tasks, Mary Ellen's words back her actions: "You never retire, you just repot and keep growing."

With parallel careers in writing, editing and publication design, Anne McNamee Corbett has spent her adult life immersed in non-fiction. Her degree is in journalism from the University of Washington, and she worked two sessions at the Washington State Legislature, as a reporting intern for The Seattle Times and as a staff writer in the Senate. An initiator, she was founding editor of both a weekly community newspaper and a regional medical center newsmagazine, as well as the co-creator of an annual trade magazine. She also co-founded a community land trust and film development company. Her collective writing spans a variety of fields: education, state and county government, the courts, land use and community planning, legislative reporting and political campaigns, medical advances, pharmaceutical research, alternative heating technology, investments and theater. The mother of three lovely daughters, friend to two stepsons and to a growing circle of daughters- and sons-in-law, she resides with her husband in the US Pacific Northwest.